The Dubliners is a collection of short stories, Two Gallants is also one of the stories that is included. The story is arranged in the order of age, from childhood to adulthood, then to death. Two Gallants is a story that happened in adulthood. It’s about two gallants, Lenehan, and Corely talking about a woman who is a maid that Corely is dating while they’re walking in the evening. When Corely went dating the woman, Lenehan wanted to see the woman so Corely meets him after the date. When Lenehan was wondering about Corely, Corely and the woman appeared near a house. Corely waited while the woman went inside and came out giving Corely something, which is a gold coin, but the author didn’t write about the origin of the gold coin. The story is all about these three characters and is very simple, but also represents things according to the background and the scene.
According to the background history of the story and summarizing the characteristics of the characters, we can know that one of the main reasons that cause this story to happen is the corrosion of Irish society. Irish is once a single country but as we all know Irish now are two separate countries. Since it’s been colonized by England, Irish society become corroded and declined. In the story, Corely’s financial situation is that he did the job whenever the job was vacant and his friend was always ready to give him work, and Lenehan’s situation is very magical that no one knew how he achieved the stern task of living. Their actions seem to be very incomprehensible, but they are the epitome of all Ireland citizens. Because people there lived poor and Ireland’s historical decline under England’s colonial rule, we can see that the corrosion of Ireland is not only lacking autonomy but also the decline of their culture and economy. This is why Lenehan and Corely’s behavior seems always to be lazy and have a negative attitude.
For understanding the characters better, another factor that we also need to think about is why Corely and Lenehan behave like that is their lack of sense of belonging. The lack of sense of belonging is formed because of many different issues, not only simply because of feeling lonely. We know that Corely had friends that were always ready to give him work, but it said “coming up to a party of them in a bar and of holding himself nimbly at the borders of the company until he was included in a round” in the story. Even though he had friends, he still wants a true friend, and he don’t need to hold himself at the borders to wait for others to include him in a round. Apart from Corely who wants friends, Lenehan wants a family. According to the story, the author wrote: “He might yet be able to settle down in some snug corner and live happily if he could only come across some good simple-minded girl with a little of the ready.” This shows that he really wants to have a family instead of wandering around at almost 31. Not only do they, look wider, but Ireland also lacks belonging due to their need for protection from Britain. Both of them lack of sense of belonging, neither wants friends or a family, and this also reflects on the whole society.
From their lack of sense of belonging, there’s another cause that leads from this, which is betrayal. Betrayal could be caused by the lack of sense of belonging, for the reason that they have nobody to trust or to rely on so they will always doubt other people, and feel betrayed. According to the story, there were lots of parts that show people being betrayed. For example, the woman betrayed her employer by stealing valuables from him. Corely betrayed the woman because he didn’t respect her while talking and his purpose of dating her is just to get money, but not showing his wholeheartedness. This indicates that the dating between the woman and Corely is not simply dating which is just they are loving each other for real, instead, it’s full of betrayal, and both with purpose. For Lenehan, he’s basically not betraying others, but he’s afraid that Corely will betray him. Lenehan and Corely are not trusting each other, and always distrust each other. To concern the whole society, we can also see that the Irish government also betrays its people by making their life worse and England betrays Ireland by not providing any protection. So betrayal is shown throughout the story, from between people to between nations.
In conclusion, the short story Two Gallants seems very simple but still reflects many themes throughout the story. The three themes that we can sum up are somehow related to each other. From the historical level, because England establishes a colony of Ireland, the corrosion of Irish society appeared from the economic and cultural decline and the citizens’ life getting worse. The lack of sense of belonging and betrayal expressed in the story shows that both people and the nation want belonging since they were betrayed or afraid of being betrayed by others. Lenehan, Corely, and the woman were just a epitome of people there that time.
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